Yacht Design School is primarily a distance learning
institution, though we have had a few students in residence here. Please read the material in the Brochure first
and then browse the lesson contents pages for the curricula. This will suggest questions which you may find
the answers to in our frequently asked questions. You
may enroll and buy educational software using the buttons below, the
older Enrollment Form at left still exists
temporarily,or enroll through the mail. All books recommended
for the school both in print and out of print can
now be ordered through us if you wish.

"The education, and
career, that you don't have to go into debt for." - Tom MacNaughton

"Genius is learned behavior" - Tom MacNaughton

"I want to say to you that the decisions to change my work from building to
designing ánd the choice of following the Yacht Design School for this, are
the best decisions I have made ever!" - Evert Jan
Boot, The Netherlands

Degree Program in Naval Architecture with a
Specialty in Yacht & Small Craft Design

Lessions 1 - 11 Should be ordered in sequence & not
more than 2 ahead of the lesson you are working on at a given
time.

These packages are most often ordered bundled with the CAD
Course as shown below. However if you are not taking the CAD Course
you can also buy these packages and bundles of Rhino and plug-ins below
here. All these are education license pricing for our students.
Important: We can sell direct to you if your address is in the United
States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. If you are in other
countries, email us on software and we will send you the appropriate order
form for your area:
Rhino Version 5.0 CAD Package, Educational License, $195
Flamingo nXt, Photorealistic Rendering Plug-In, Educational License, $195
Penguin, Illustrative Rendering Plug-in, Educational License, $95
Bongo, Animation Software Plug-in, Educational License, $195
Brazil, Profession Hyper-Realistic Rendering Plug-in, Educational License, $195
Scan&Solve Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Plug-in, Educational License, $295
Rhino 5.0 / Flamingo nXt, / Penguin / Bongo Bundle, Educational License $495
Best Buy!

Additional Elective Courses,
Other Useful Schools,
& Internships

Computer Assisted Design Course. This
brief curriculum is now the most common entry point for most students to
their studies with us before tackling the Yacht
Design School main curriculum in yacht and small craft naval architecture.
It is not a formal prerequisite. It is intended to teach the use of the
Rhino CAD
package in yacht and small craft naval architecture as thoroughly as possible. This
extraordinary design tool is the standard for yacht design firms world wide and is
being rapidly adopted by all of us who teach yacht design as well.
Taking this course first and then doing the entire main curriculum using on
screen design rather than using any manual drafting is now the workable choice and much less expensive than
trying to find manual drafting equipment
which is not made anymore. While for awhile longer you can still use
our
form to enroll and acquire the educational
license software you will find it easy to use our PayPal based shopping cart
system. Complete Tuition $1,099. Most student will buy
one of our bundles of the course and the Rhino software. If it is not
a financial hardship this is a good
time choose a bundle including the very useful plug-ins for advanced rendering and even
animation at student prices.

Important Note on International Orders:
All "Computer Assisted Design Course" orders go through us. If you
live in the United States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand you can also
use the "bundle buttons" or separate buttons to order the software through
us. If you are outside our authorized software selling area, email or
call us for an order form for the appropriate reseller in your area.

CAD Course bundled with Rhino Version 5.0 plus the Flamingo nXt
& Penguin photorealistic and illustrative rendering plug-ins, along with the
Bongo animation plug-in. All of these with educational licenses. This is the biggest "bang for the buck" bundle of
CAD Course and Software. This is the option most often chosen because
of the enormous savings on the great rendering and animation software: $1,594

CAD Course bundled with Rhino Version 5.0 educational license.
If the lowest possible cost is needed, this is the
minimum cost CAD Course and Software bundle: $1,294

CAD
Course only. For those who already
have either the Rhino educational or Rhino commercial software license:
$1,099

Scan&Solve(tm) - We now are able to provide students
with this Finite Element Analysis (FEA) plug-in for Rhino.
While we have not yet written a curriculum to teach Scan&Solve(tm) we do
want to provide basic
training in its use. We are happy to suggest exercises, which students
can work using Rhino and this plug-in and we will examine the results.
Eventually this will evolve into a curriculum which we can offer. FEA allows you to design an object of structural
interest in Rhino and then specify the loads on it. "Scan&Solve" then
computes the stresses on all parts of the object, revealing whether it will
carry the loads, what the strains are, where it deforms and where stresses
may concentrate. This makes optimizing parts for the longest possible
life much easier and more accurate than any hand method could manage in a
reasonable amount of time. Though NASA may use fancier FEA
programs, we have at last found an FEA tool, suitable for the average yacht
design office, and which is cost effective for students and professionals in this
industry. Students will normally order the educational license for $295,
using our PayPal based shopping cart system and the button below. You
can still use our old
Enrollment Form. We fully support this
plug-in and hope to offer an optional course as described below. Those who are
not students of our school can get an educational license from us, if they
can document that they are in fact enrolled in another school for which this
software is relevant. Commercial users can purchase commercial
licenses through the software section of our
Pen and Anchor Publications.

Scan&Solve(tm) Educational License:

Finite Element Analysis Course - At present this
we envision this course as amounting to a gradually expanding outline of what the functions of
Scan&Solve(tm) the FEA plug-in for Rhino are, how to interpret
these functions, and a gradually increasing number of projects of different
types to test your understanding of how to use FEA in practical yacht and
small craft naval architecture. Lesson materials in addition to the
manuals provided with the software at the moment consists of personal "one
on one" tutorial time which will gradually expand to include both printed
materials and video clips as we gain more students. Because the newness of
this curriculum will make the instruction process very rough at first we are
not yet charging for this training for students in our main curriculum.
In the interests of keeping the eventual pricing as low as
possible we will keep very careful track of the time we spend with each
student.
As the instruction becomes more standardized we will price for
new students to reflect actual instruction times. Because this course
will be paid for with a one time fee, once you have acquired it you will not be asked for more money if and when the
rate goes up while you are working on the curriculum. Once we start
charging for this training separately from the main curriculum graduates will receive a nice
framed certificate recognizing your understanding of FEA as embodied in the
Scan&Solve plug-in.

The Boat School -
For those of you who want to learn traditional wooden boat building, modern
wood and epoxy boatbuilding, fiberglass construction and construction in
more exotic composites, this school will get you the education you need to
get an entry level job in the field or the practical knowledge that is so helpful as a
student of YDS. Like YDS this is not a high priced school and has a
lot of advantages. This school is operated by a non-profit economic
development corporation in Eastport, Maine. Your YDS main curriculum
primary instructor was the founding president of this organization until his
retirement in 2010.

Khan Academy -
Contrary to the belief of many aspiring students the math involved in yacht
and small craft naval architecture is not very complex. Most people
will probably need more help in learning to be careful with their
calculations and check their work, than actually needing much math
instruction. Of course we are always here to teach anything you didn't
get in school at no addtional charge and our "Basic Math Primer" can be
emailed to you free. However for those who want to learn math from the
simplest of addition problems up through quite advanced subjects, we
recommend the Khan Academy
www.khanacademy.org This fully endowed online institution is absolutely
free and amazingly good at teaching from the simplest concept to the most
advanced. Though they started with math they are well on their way to
providing a complete university education without charging you a cent.
Though we teach in much more depth than they do we sure wish we could build an endowment like that so we could teach for
free.

Internships & Entry Level Drafting Positions
– We are now again in a position to encourage students to study as a
residential student here in Eastport. In addition students can
participate in Internship programs where they do unpaid work in the office
designed to broaden their experience. Advanced students can, depending
upon our work load, sometimes get paying work as entry level draftsmen.

The
Woodenboat School - This school teaches everything from sailing, and
cruising courses, to survey, repair and construction, you can even learn to
cast your own bronze hardware. This is a great family experience and a
wonderful way to spend summer vacations. Virtually everything you
would learn at this school would enhance the knowledge you need to be a
truly great designer. We highly recommend this school in addition to
our curriculum.